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Injection anxiety

The countdown method that worked for me

Started 26 November 2024 · 22 replies · 226 hearts · read 1.8k times

BrodyDunfermline, UK · 26 November 2024
1.6 years ago

Starting a thread on this because it keeps coming up in ones and twos: The countdown method that worked for me

Before anyone says it: yes, I have an appointment booked. I would still like to hear from people who have had this.

I am aware some of this may be nothing. I would still like to know whether other people have had it, because I have spent a fortnight assuming I am the only one.

What I would find most useful is not advice. It is somebody describing what their version of this was, and how long it went on for.

I will report back either way, because I have been helped by other people's follow-ups more than by their questions.

75

GwynforLlanidloes, UK
#1

Two things that helped me, neither of them clever: small amounts more often, and drinking a lot more than felt necessary.

13

CatoAntwerp, BE
#2

Reading the opening post, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

I would take that to a clinician rather than to us, and I would do it this week. Not because it is definitely serious — because it is the sort of thing that is much easier to rule out than to worry about.

9

OmarAmman, JO
#3

the reply above — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Different experience here, for balance. Mine did not improve and in the end I stopped, and that was the right call for me. Both outcomes exist.

10

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada
#4

If any of this has landed close to home for you while reading, our support resources page lists the kinds of services worth finding. No obligation and no drama.

12

SaraOslo, NO
#5

Similar here, and mine turned out to be a completely unrelated deficiency picked up on bloods.

8

BrackAlnwick, UK
#6

I have been in this circle a year and this question comes round every few months. It is not a silly question. It is the question.

14me too 9

NylaNairobi, KE
#7

Yes. All of this. I had the same in my third month and I remember thinking there was something specifically wrong with me, which there was not.

9

PerrineStrasbourg, FR
#8

Reading the reply above, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

Mine lasted about seven weeks and then lifted over a few days. I cannot tell you why. I can tell you it lifted.

11

SableCape Town, ZA
#9

I am about four months behind you and I have been dreading exactly this, so thank you for writing it down before I got there.

8

GaelanInverurie, UK
#10

Yes to the burping. It is real, it is unbeautiful, and it does settle.

9

Ozzy GWalsall, UK
#11

My pharmacist was more use than anyone. Ten minutes at the counter, no appointment, no charge.

11

TedIpswich, UK
#12

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

Can I gently push back on one thing? Not the substance, just the framing — you have written twice that you should be coping better. Who told you that?

9me too 2

OrlaithDonegal, IE
#13

I keep a two-line diary and it is the only reason I could answer this question about myself. Worth starting even now.

12

DelythBala, UK
#14

No advice, just recognition. That sounds exhausting and I am sorry you are in it.

6

OttaviaBologna, IT
#15

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

The phrase that unlocked my appointment was asking what specifically she wanted me to watch for. It moved us from reassurance to a plan in about thirty seconds.

10

NadirCasablanca, MA
#16

It got worse before it got better for me, which I wish someone had said. About ten days of worse.

8

TabbyMargate, UK
#17

For what it is worth, the trial data on this is thinner than the confidence of the internet would suggest. Worth knowing when you read the posts.

8me too 7

ZoëHackney, UK
#18

Gently disagreeing with the reply above, or rather adding the other half of it.

Have you got anyone who can be with you when you do it? It made an enormous difference to me and I felt silly asking.

6

IslaOban, UK
#19

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

The thing that changed it for me was going slower, agreed with my prescriber. I am not suggesting you do that. I am saying the conversation exists.

8

IvesPenzance, UK
#20

I did exactly the same and felt terrible about it. You have not done anything wrong.

13

EsiFacilitatorToronto, Canada
#21

Two things, both boring. First, none of us can tell you what to take. Second, the conversation you want to have is with your prescriber, and we can help you write it down.

24

GwynforLlanidloes, UK
#22

Practical, boring answer: write the three questions down before you go in. I have never once remembered them otherwise.

8